Julia Richman

Born in New York City, Julia Richman was raised in a middle-class family in the Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany, neighborhood of lower Manhattan. After graduating from the Female Normal College (later renamed Hunter College), Richman began a forty-year tenure as a public school teacher. She was active in Jewish communal and charitable organizations, including Temple Ahawath Chesed (today Central Synagogue) and the Jewish Educational Alliance, formed in 1885 to facilitate the assimilation of newly arrived Yiddish-speaking immigrants into the dominant, English-speaking American culture. In 1903, Richman was appointed superintendent of public schools on the Lower East Side, a position she used to advance teacher training in the neighborhood and to build a new school for students with disciplinary problems, among other achievements. In New York City, the Julia Richman Education Complex continues to serve students with special needs.